We’re All Ears Design Challenge - July

"So by visualizing this piece of music we are all of a sudden open to a number ofthings we might not notice when just hearing it. We can see patterns andsequences more easily. We can see which instruments are playing and where andhow. We can see when harmony becomes melody. And we can see when there's onenote versus when there's many notes."

The above quote comes from a TEDx talk that sparked the inspiration for July’s We’re All Ears Challenge. You can read about it here

The screen shot below is taken from an interpretation of Bohemian Rhapsody 2. It happens at approx. 1:40 – 1:50 in the video. 

Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody 2, Andy Fillebrown

The image reminded me of the charms used in these earrings. I had originally selected them because they reminded me of the music my relatives played when we wanted to celebrate our French Canadian heritage. There were heavy Atlantic coast, Northern Canadian and European influences in the family and I have never been able to pin down the exact origin but I don’t have much of a musical ear so that doesn’t help

Hungarian Rhapsody

The charms are antiqued brass stamped with a mandala like pattern. I am quite taken by the flowers in the centre. A healthy coating of gilders paste was applied to bring out the details. Tiny glass beads in a lighter green and brass colour help to tie the charms to the antiqued brass ear wires

You can find the earrings in my shop.

Please visit the Earrings Everyday site for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Art Bead Scene June Challenge

For June’s Art Bead Scene challenge this very bright and colourful pastel drawing by Odelin Redon is the star of the show

Profile on Red Meanders, Odelin Redon, 1900, Pastel

Although the colours are extremely bright and colourful there are many images hidden within the artwork that point to darker influences. You can read about these on the inspiration challenge post

This month I have made several necklaces and a few bracelets for different purposes and decided I wanted to go with something less elaborate. I made these 2 pair of earrings, with a charm all their own

Galaxies and Night Glow

The first pair that I made are the Galaxies earrings. The polymer clay charms were created by Sue Lin Tarnowski. Though I think she was channeling a cross cut in a tree limb, I saw galaxies. The bright pink background reminds me of bubblegum that was popular in my much younger days and to my eye works well with the colour palette of the artwork. I added some translucent rose quartz ovals and used sterling silver for the final touch

Galaxies

For the Night Glow earrings I actually used the back of the polymer clay charms, also created by Sue Lin Tarnowski. Although I loved the front with its abstract inlayed pattern and darker versions of the same colours, it was the back side I first saw when sorting through my collection of charms

Night Glow

I used bright green chrysoberyl rounds (cats eyes) to bring the green out even more and again finished the set with sterling silver

Why did I choose to use the reverse of the charms as the focus for these earrings? Just before I started selecting my art beads I had seen this photo from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. Though the colours are different the scattering of stars is perfect

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my interpretations. Both pieces will be added to my shop tomorrow

Do go to the reveal on June 30 to see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Pretty Palettes June Design Challenge

For their challenge this month, Molly chose the inspiration from her arms, literally. She loved the colour combo from a library book, her sunglass case and a binder

When she least expected it, June’s Pretty Palette jumped out at her!

Molly chose the brown shades along with aqua, soft white, red and antiqued silver however my eye saw the black, red, soft white and aqua shades so I chose to create with those

Trade Flower

The starting point was the polymer clay flower, purchased in a destash sale from Lesley Watt. Next came the large zebra jasper nuggets, coral shell dyed red and jet black farfalle beads. Looking at the combination sitting on my bench it felt heavy and dark so I added some silver tone tube beads and clasp to brighten it up. Everything is strung on black waxed linen cording

Trade Flower

The necklace is available in my shop.

Please visit the Halcraft site for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Art Elements June Challenge - Insects

Usually the Art Elements monthly themed challenge is based on a component created by one of the team members. This month the inspiration is a little more free form. Diana Ptazynski has selected Insects as the theme. Here are all the details on the challenge

Cecropia Moth - Photo by Ashley Fly

This particular challenge is not limited to jewellery and is in fact open to any type of artistic interpretation so long as it is an original creation. As it is the choice of my creative muse, I have stayed with the jewellery theme. Digging through my inventory stash I found 2 dragonfly pendants, one in earthenware clay and one ceramic, and decided to make 2 variations on the dragonfly theme

This first one is centered on the ceramic dragonfly created by Cindy Pack. With its rich earthy green and light brown colours I decided to work with gemstones in complementary colours, selecting green tourmaline in a coin shape and moonstone in the traditional round bead shape. As I was laying out my pattern I realized there were hints of blue in that pendant so I added square shaped durmortierite beads to the necklace. I liked the colour combinations and the way the shapes add variety to the necklace

I used one part of a silver tone clasp as a bail for the pendant, a silver plated lobster clasp and a gunmetal round chain to complete the necklace. Both the bail and clasp were darkened with gilders paste to fit the look of the design better

Dark Dragon

The second dragonfly pendant came from Jenny Davies Reazor and is made of earthenware clay with some lovely glaze colours. I went much lighter with the colour palette on this one with rough citrine nuggets, crystals in brown and green and copper for the bail, clasp and finishing pieces. The citrine beads are tumbled smooth but because of the rough cuts they don’t lie smoothly, giving a bit of a twisted look to the necklace

Twisting Dragonfly

That sweet little pendant was created for the 2014 Beads of Courage auction and is inscribed with the year and the word Soar on the back, which is how this necklace makes me feel

Reverse of Twisting Dragonfly

I have some of each of the gemstones and crystals used in the necklaces and am feeling inspired to make some matching earrings. Hopefully that will get done next week

I hope you enjoyed seeing my creations. They are available in my shop

Do see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Guests

Mona Arnott  - You are here

Melissa Trudinger 

Sarajo Wentling

Divya N

Art Elements Team

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Diana Ptaszynski

Lesley Watt 

Caroline Dewison

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Niky Sayers

Claire Fabian

Honey Do List June Challenge

The inspiration photo that Eric Wentling took for the June challenge is of the sweetest little rose breasted grosbeak imaginable

Photo of Rose Breasted Grosbeak courtesy of Eric Wentling

I adore that little bird and its subtle coloration punctuated by that splash of colour. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do justice to it though, until I came across some lovely lampwork glass beads I had purchased from Raven Sky. A single red ceramic bead from Cindy Pack and some natural white freshwater coin pearls with a crusty surface were added to complete the initial strand of the bracelet I chose to make

Much as I loved that one strand it did not feel complete so I added a second strand with more of the coin pearls and some glass farfalle beads. The beads, aka peanut beads, have a translucent colour called Grey Labrador on one side and a shiny silver colour on the second side. Strung randomly they make an interesting pattern

 

Flight Song

I finished the bracelet with sterling silver bead caps, wires and toggle clasp. To help balance how the bracelet sits a single pearl dangles from the toggle side of the clasp

Flight Song

I hope you enjoyed seeing my creation. It is available in my shop

Do go to the reveal and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

We’re All Ears June Challenge

June has been a month with insect based inspiration challenges. The Earrings Everyday monthly challenge is in that group. For this challenge it’s all about fireflies, some of the most amazing little creatures

If you have never had the chance to see fireflies, or lightning bugs as they are sometimes called, I hope you have that opportunity one day. I was one of the many children enchanted by them in the town where I grew up

Fireflies in action

The natural colours a firefly produces can be yellow, pale green or red. I tried to imitate the flash of the bioluminescent glow that is produced by these insects but didn’t have anything in those colour ranges that would work. In the end I decided to work with Blue Goldstone and made these

Night Flight

The silver sparkles on the man made gemstones has always appealed to me and this seemed a perfect opportunity to bring them out of the cabinet. I used gunmetal for the ear wires, chain and head pins to keep the focus on the beads

Night Flight

 The tiny blue goldstone beads hanging off of the chain are my attempt to represent the synchronization that these insects display in their flashes

These earrings will be added to my shop this weekend.

Please visit the Earrings Everyday site for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Pretty Palettes May Design Challenge

For their challenge this month, Molly selected some lovely succulents for the Pretty Palette inspiration

Succulents from the Greenhouse

The focus is all on the greens in all shades. Of course we need other colours for contrast and I used them well.

The same as last month, I made a necklace that started with an embossed teardrop, this one with a darker green and with gold on the embossing. This time I decided to luxe up the look to the max. 

Meant To Be

The oval beads are jade with freshwater pearls sitting between each gemstone. The pearls are dyed in a colour combination called Treasure Mix. Doesn’t that sound just lovely? To my eye the colours of the pearls pull out the background and the creamy colour on the one plant. I continued the luxe look with 14 Kt gold fill for all the metals

Meant To Be

The necklace needed earrings to go with it so of course I obliged

Looking at the plants again I decided to put the inspiration to work again with memory wire bracelets.

Slide into Green

The larger bracelet has heishi shell, olive jade and aventurine strung on the memory wire from lightest to darkest and back again. I like the effect, it flows so nicely

I liked it so much I decided to make another with more heishi shell pieces, this time with some in the natural white and some dyed a pale pink. After all there’s some light pink peeking out of the bottom right corner of the last photo, right?

Touch of Blush

Everything will be added to my shop this weekend.

Please visit the Halcraft site for the blog reveal to see what everyone else made

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day

Art Bead Scene May Challenge

May’s inspiration for the monthly ABS challenge is this painting by Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle

There’s 2 ways to go with this artwork, emulate the fragmented view seen from many angles, or take inspiration from the colours. Since the Cubism movement has never really appealed to me I chose to focus on the colours

Heartstrings

First up came this bracelet. The cream and red colour of the ceramic button, made by Sienna Orlando a local artist, pull from opposite ends of the artwork, quiet creamy white background and a splash of colour that grabs the eye. I followed it up with green and copper beads that pulled other colours from the artwork, and added more of the red and cream in 2 of the strands and the loop for the button

I’ve got the Rhythm

This lariat style necklace took the colours from the artwork in a different direction. This one focuses on the muted green and brown colours, reflected in the dark green of the porcelain beads, all created by Leslie Watt and in the brown of the waxed cotton cord

I hope you enjoyed seeing my interpretations. Both pieces are available in my shop

Do go to the reveal on the 31st and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Honey Do List May Challenge

The inspiration photo that Eric Wentling took for the May challenge was of a brass sculpture sitting in a garden of field grasses and fruit trees

Photo courtesy of Eric Wentling

That tree with its beautiful spring flowers is the star of the photo. This month though I just wasn’t feeling it for that pinkish purple colour. Instead I focused on the sculpture and the grasses. From those came this necklace

Sculptural

The antiqued brass spacer beads, bail for the pendant & clasp evoke the sculpture while the green and yellow green serpentine beads reflect the grasses and background trees. Flowers are a necessity for gardens and daisies are perfect for one like the garden in the photo

 

Sculptural

The sweet polymer clay flower was created by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. I used an antiqued brass bail and ring to attach it to the necklace of serpentine gemstones and antiqued brass spacer beads

I hope you enjoyed seeing my necklace. It is available in my shop

Do go to the reveal and see what everyone else made. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day